For Immediate Release
May 14, 2003

Moscow court refuses Council of Europe's criticism of trial

MOSCOW—The trial in which the prosecution aims to ban Jehovah's Witnesses in Moscow, now in its seventh year, resumed today in the Golovinsky Intermunicipal District Court.

Judge Vera K. Dubinskaya refused to admit a 2002 report accepted by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from co-rapporteurs Mr. David Atkinson and Mr. Rudolf Bindig, who "regard the length of the judicial examination in this case as an example of harassment against a religious minority." In their report Honouring of obligations and commitments by the Russian Federation, dated March 26, 2002, the co-rapporteurs called for the trial to be halted.

The prosecutor, Tatyana Kondratyeva, refused to answer questions on the report, even though in her complaint she charged the religious community of Jehovah's Witnesses with contravening the European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

In 2001 the prosecutor claimed that the application to ban the legal entity was a means to protect the rights and freedoms of all 10,000 Witnesses in Moscow. However, today she refused to say whom she is representing. "The law does not bind me to specify people," she stated. She later said: "I am not required to follow the letter of the law, only the spirit of the law."

Commenting on today's events in court, defense lawyer, Galina Krylova commented: "The prosecutor has failed to identify the plaintiff, will not state which articles in any of the Conventions Jehovah's Witnesses have allegedly violated, and snubs a report by Council of Europe officials. Her comments only confirm the co-rapporteurs' conclusions that this trial is a form of harassment and should be halted."

English-speaking contact, Paul Gillies, mobile telephone: +(44) 07775 833880
Local contact: Vasilii Kalin
Telephone: +7 (902) 680-17-79
E-mail: jvkalin@wtbts.org.ru
Address of the Golovinsky Intermunicipal District Court:
ul. Zoi i Aleksandra Kosmodem'yanskikh, 31/2, Moscow